Alaska Native Collections – Sharing Knowledge

We took that [rope], pulled it here [over the shoulders] … and then stood up [gestures bending under heavy load] and walked and walked and walked.

—Neva Rivers, 2002

A chest yoke was fastened to a burden basket or other heavy load that rode on a person’s back, making it easier to carry. This red-painted yoke is carved with a woman’s face, her tattoos visible at the corners of her mouth, and decorated with caribou teeth. When a yoke was not used a grass rope was tied across the chest instead, as Neva Rivers describes.

To learn more about the history of this object, read a report by Smithsonian conservators at http://anthropology.si.edu/accessinganthropology/alaska/gallerygrassbag.html (copy and paste this address into your internet browser).